Annie

A super-relaxed Annie Seel shares her thoughts and feelings the day before it all really gets going.

Annies focus is now clearly on Dakar 2016.

Tomorrow is the 3rd of January: the prolog in Buenos Aires, then laison to Rosario. A year of planning and preparation is finally over. Today Annie and her co-driver Bert Heskes (NL) will take their Dessert Warrior through scrutineering.

Annie’s passion for the”hardest rally-raid in the world” is tangible. The goose bumps that she shows me on her arms as she tells me that “Today, things finally get serious” are infectious, maybe signaling an end to Annies laid-back run-up to the over 9000 km trial of (wo)man and machine.

We talk of Annie’s primary goal of completing the Dakar for the first time on 4 wheels (after 5 finishes on 2) and of how the tinyest problem can lead to a retirement when unfortunate circumstances and coincidence are combined. Being the fastest female is also on Annie’s to-do list!

Annie is known for keeping her head under pressure, and she is quietly confident of her, as yet unproven, co-driver Bert Heskes. Bert says that they have a natural understanding of each other, making communication simple. Bert comes with a depth of mechanical experience, having raced his own Dessert Warrior for several years.

When pressed, Annie admits that when the “shit hits the fan” she may well stay calm, but might “strangle Bert slowly”

The Desert Warriors gleaming paint is as yet unscarred. The bonnet displaying the names of many of Annies micro-sponsors. Again this year Annie is being supported by many of her fans, some who have bought a kilometer of Annie race, and others have contributed to see their names on the bright yellow bodywork.

Garry and me are sobbing and having the “post mortem” talk. He is devastated, this was his go for a dakar finish, and we know that we could have made it when it was up to our ability and race strategy. “The turtle” failed us as victim of the “fesh-fesh death”.
My first withdrawal ever.

So disappointing for both of us not to continue the race. Just because of a bloody little hole, that we fixed out there on the course. But later it caused the major engine breakdown.

Our mechanics had a very busy night as also our team partner world champion Nico Duclos was towed in with a broken gearbox.
The same problem hit Yasir Saedan earlier on this stage.

Garry and me slept only 2 hours but were ready to take off on stage 5 at 7:30. But the time was too short to make all repairs, it’s not allowed to change the whole engine like on bikes.Below: Dakar rules 32P Engine change

We also had a coffee session with#320 Chicherit’s codriver Brucy – their car went up in flames completely.

General feelings and thoughts about the importance of personal equipment:

I’m very content with my Simpson neck protection, just great! Stabilizing when reading the roadbook, I get no neck ache. I put it on before race start and won’t take it off until finished the stage, regardless what I must do in between.
Garry has as an ordinary type of neck guard; no good, he says – it fits badly, difficult to to take on and off when working with the car.

I have two Sabelt overalls from LM Motorsport. After the feshy stage that smeared everything it was nice to have a clean overall, while the service team washes the dirty. * The photo: last day sunbathing, then I’m two weeks fully covered by the overall during rally.

The Bell helmet from G Partners is awsome, keeps all dust out.
And everybody thinks it looks really good! So true… 😉

Its up!
Now you can follow my swedish Dakar Video blog on eurosport.se, video.eurosport.se/rally-raid/dakar/2014.
Already there are pre-rally videos showing what’s going on before the start of Dakar 2014.
I will show you stuff from behind the scenes and also try to report how the race is going.
I hope you all realize that transmitting from the desert can be very difficult, so updating the blog is maybe not so regular.